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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Heeey

Just popping in for a quick hello. As you can see, I have finally taken the plunge and downloaded some pictures on to this little rental computer. Sadly, it was just as much of a pain as I had imagined, which is why it took me so long to try it in the first place. So if you keep seeing the same pictures over and over for the next month until we get settled in our new place, just pretend it's cool, okay?

As for the little bag above, it was a quick sew right before a fun little baby shower I attended last Saturday. The contents of the bag may or may not have been baby stuff in good condition that we didn't sell at the yard sale the week before. So I thought since the gift was so easy it at least deserved some suitable wrapping. And since I literally sold our box of wrapping supplies at the yard sale, this little drawstring bag was also kind of necessary. And cute, no?

The fabric is from my wonderful sponsor, Cherry Lane Textiles. It's called Alexander Henry 2-D Zoo in Green and it's currently on sale! I've been working with Holly (the shop owner) for well over a year now and I have only good things to say about her and her shop. Fun prints, fast shipping, cute packaging (which shouldn't matter so much, but it just does). So if you're in the market for some high quality, low-cost fabric, head her way. And tell her I sent ya.

In other news, I had a weird experience today. Well, as series of weird experiences. And they were all brought on by this little stroller. We've had this stroller since before Olivia was born and I absolutely love it--for a lot of reasons--but there's just not room to take it with us. So last night I posted it on Craigslist and another local free online ad place. Well, this stroller and our umbrella stroller. I won't get into the boring explanation, but you can just trust me on this and know that it was a good decision (I hope) to sell both of these strollers and just get a new and nicer umbrella stroller. Aaaanyway, since we're selling both strollers, Olivia and I went hunting for a new one today.

First of all, it was overcast. I'm from Oregon and I love it when it's overcast, but not when I'm driving. I get headaches from the sun or from too much light (i.e. overcast skies). And today was no exception. In addition to that, I was being picky about what I wanted in our new stroller and that meant driving around to a bunch of stores and trying to find stores I had never been to before. All this means that I was getting stressed.

All of this set me up for the first weird experience I had today. I was just leaving a store I had never been to before (i.e. that I had never driven to before) and I could feel that weird stressed feeling coming on that I only get when I drive to new places. And then, just before I finished pulling into the Target parking lot, I had a few minutes where the top right part of my vision just went white. Obviously this startled me quite a bit. I grabbed Olivia and headed inside Target. Things calmed down. My vision came back to normal. And then I got a headache. (*Just to clarify, I never actually got a migraine. Or if I did it was a super mild one, thank heavens.)

Later I went to the optometrist and we talked for a long time. The good news is, I have perfect vision. No nearsightedness. No farsightedness. No nerve damage or damage anywhere else. As he was telling me all this I was preparing myself for him to say, "So... that was weird, but you don't have any permanent damage from it, so let's just hope it doesn't happen again!" But he didn't say that. He reassured me that my vision was in no danger and then he started talking to me about what he thought had happened. He said I had had an "ophthalmic migraine" which is basically where a blood vessel spasms for a minute--causing a "weird visual experience"--and then it goes back to normal, usually followed by a migraine.

We talked about what can bring on migraines and that they can be stress induced. We talked about my issues with driving. And finally he told me, "You know, I'm no expert in this area, but I really think you could have some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." And you know what? I couldn't agree more. The more we talked about what that entailed the more it fit my description exactly. (And of course I couldn't help but think about that episode in West Wing when they diagnose Josh with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At least I haven't gone and broken a window or anything.)

Anyway, it was a lot to take in. But I think it's really helped. In the end, the optometrist suggested drinking some caffeinated soda while I drive if I think I might get stressed. I never drink caffeinated soda, but for the reasons he suggested I'm fine to let it be a part of my life. He said that there are medications you can get to help with the migraines that help open up the blood vessels that may be getting blocked, but the main ingredient in those medications is just caffeine anyway.

So on the way home from the optometrist I went and bought a Mountain Dew. Which was definitely the first time in my life I had ever done that. But you know what? It totally helped.

Anyway, so there's the three weird experiences I had today brought on by Olivia's old blue stroller: crazy vision, getting diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and buying Mountain Dew.

Not exactly the day I had planned when I woke up this morning. But it ended with making more buttons and eating chocolate chip cookies, so it wasn't all bad. And I did end up finding a new stroller. Though, ironically, I ended up ordering it online.

9 comments:

I was going to suggest migraine, partway through the paragraph where you described what happened, but I see your doctor already told you that. :) I was also going to suggest caffeinated pop as a remedy - works pretty well for me. Migraine can absolutely be stress-induced, and also sometimes hormones can be a trigger. There is medication available for them but the side effects...let's just say I'd rather get migraines than risk some of them! But I find if I drink some caffeine and if I can take something Excedrin-like (aspirin+caffeine), they usually don't get too bad.

Anyway - I'm glad you were able to get home without further incident & that you were able to find a stroller. And make cookies. And buttons. Sounds like a halfway decent day in spite of the scary migraine episode. xo

I always get those when I am pregnant. I call them eye-graines :) It is a very odd expierience if you haven't had them before. Mine are more black then white. The first time I thought I was having a stroke. Glad to know my addiction to diet coke is what is helping :) Thanks!

I've gotten ocular migraines for several years. They can be pretty disturbing. Mine travel from one eye, encompass the other eye, then travel just to the second eye before they leave. So, there is a point in time when I can't see anything - aaahh. Sorry it happened, but that the optometrist had some helpful things to say/suggest.

When I was walking in a parkinglot with two of my children in the grocery cart, suddenly a car backed out of the parkingspace slamming into my cart, and slamming my cart into another car. I'm not even kidding. The lady just slammed into us, and shoved us into another car. Literally I was standing there, with my two kids screaming in the cart,and a car on both sides of me, if the grocery cart had say, collapsed all three of us would have been crushed. But it didn't, and the width of the cart held, and literally I was between the bumper of the one car, and the side of the car that was hit.

Ever since then I will have these occasional moments in a parkinlot where I completely freak out. I almost always calm down once I'm out of there, but it's so terrifying! ANYONE can back up! At any time! Sometimes I just freak out and grab the kids and start shouting all sorts of things, "GET TO THE CAR QUICK! HURRY! WE HAVE TO RUN! IT"S NOT SAFE!" I'm sure this is great for their sanity. :) But I figure it's just a part of my life- not a perfect part, but definitely a post traumatic stress part. I don't usually have a migraine afterwards, but occasionally.